The 2024 Mathematics and Reading Assessment for students was released on January 29 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card.
Every two years, NAEP measures the educational achievement and progress of the nation’s fourth- and eighth-grade students in reading and mathematics. It uses a representative sample of students in each state and scores are reported on a 0-to-500 scale. NAEP assessments are considered the gold standard of testing.
In the state of Michigan, the 2024 results show that student achievement has failed to return to pre pandemic levels. For 4th grade, Michigan has a 24% proficiency rate in reading, and 37% in math. In 8th grade, a 24% proficiency in reading and a 24% in math. The state of Michigan is below the national average in all categories.
While NAEP does not have individual state-level data for Catholic schools, the test results from across the nation show Catholic school students continue to outpace public schools in math and reading, and also indicate that low-income children in private schools are performing up to two grade levels better than their public-school peers.
Snapshots of the most recent results are shown here:
With the publication of the NAEP, we can say yet again, “If Catholic schools were a state, they would rank first.”
>>>> To learn more about the Diocese of Grand Rapids Catholic Schools and the Catholic school advantage shown by our standardized achievement data, visit the assessments section on our website.
>>>> To read about previous NAEP results in Catholic schools, read this 2022 blog post and this 2020 blog post.
NAEP is a congressionally mandated program and tests are administered by the National Center for Education Statistics within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. Since 1990, it has been the primary federal entity collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES is located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. To view the details of the full report go to: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/.